Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez, Lucas Ocampos start for Argentina

By
Roy Nemer
-
122

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has his starting eleven with a change at left back.

As we reported earlier, Nicolas Tagliafico was a doubt for the match and he will not be starting. Instead, it’s Nicolás González who will replace him, despite being a forward. Here’s the starting eleven:

Franco Armani; Gonzalo Montiel, Lucas Martínez Quarta, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás González; Rodrigo de Paul, Leandro Paredes, Exequiel Palacios; Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martínez and Lucas Ocampos.

The formation could also mean a back three and a midfield of four with Messi, Lautaro and Ocampos up front. The three players who did not make the bench are Agustín Marchesín, Leonardo Balerdi and Lisandro Martinez.

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122 Comments

  1. Argentina’s matches against Brazil and Uruguay in Saudi Arabia were best. They are nowhere near that level. Argentina looks like Friendly game team but in competitive games they choke. Argentina is playing like 2018 WC qualifier. Same old Argentina. Feel sorry for Messi, this shiity coach is backing SA shitty players.

  2. Di Maria proved again why he was not summoned by Scaloni in the last qualifiers. But what’s bothering me right now is Scaloni’s reluctance to sub players and selecting players for national team.

    Otamendi has to step down, he was too bad and too slow. Almost cost us a goal right at the first two minutes with two very careless clearance. It’s time for sensei and Romero to take charge cause this is the only way to go forward. If not now then when……at some point we will have to call up these guys, so the earlier the better.

  3. If Romero was here he would have butchered that “polio clown” almiron. We saw last week how good he was against Lautaro and Lukaku, he took them down with ease and also he was playing 3 man defense. It just shows how choosey we are when it comes selecting players. This is the reason we stumble a lot and if Scaloni doesn’t learn from this mistake then I don’t what he will do. You can’t keep on ignoring a player every time.

    I think AFA should launch another investigation on VAR officials and CONMEBOL. A goal like this can’t be disallowed. The play was kept on had carried towards to the goal and just after they score incremented the refree calls of the goal out if nowhere. This can’t be real.
    Refs are now proving too hard for us than actual opponents on the pitch.

  4. These South America players are complete trash.Argentina domestic league players are waste. Armani,Montiel,LMQ are trash. This time I am not going to hold my hopes high. This shitty coach calls best players to bench them in important matches. Ocampus,De Paul and Lautaro are trash too. If Argentina can not win against Paraguay in home condition what will happen to them in Europian soil vs Europian team. Right now Brazil is the best team in SA.
    Lautaro Martinez is over rated like hell Alario is much better than him.

    • LMQ is Serie A player. Do you know that? He is 100000 times better than meme Otamendi. And we hardly have any better options than Montiel at the moment.

      • I know moron LMQ is Serie A player, he is in team because of River Plate,you are the one who think TAA is over rated and LMQ and Montiel are best. LMQ is average player. Otamendi played good he has better rating than LMQ.

          • LMQ has earned his place what he has done to earn place?Do not overrate him, for right now he is average. C. Romero is much better. You not going to see LMQ in Fiorentina much

        • LQM is totally overrated. We need solid center back in team not any ball playing CBs. We have enough ball playing players in team. Need Romero, senesi type players

  5. I am not gonna go too critical here. We were playing without our lb. We got a Harsh penalty call and ref and var just decided to take Messi’s goal away. We did play better in 2nd half. Conmebol can try all they want we will still make it to WC. We are not gonna win everygame but its better not to lose. Football is not a fairytale or playstation guys. Lets beat Peru. F**K VAR

  6. Lo celso should start every game and the team played well in the second half. Alario should have come early and finally, VAR decisions were pathetic and the referee always was against us from the moment he gave that penalty to them.
    Messi should be rested in the second game and play papu.

  7. What the fuck is going on? How can that goal be disallowed??? 20 passes behind? What about VAR showing Messi got clipped at the edge of the box? How come he doesn’t get that. These mother fucking refs always cost us

  9. This was an absolute robbery but it did show how crucial tagliafico and Acuña are to the team. Scalp I had to change the whole formation and tactics due to their absence, we needed a legit lb same goes for rb Montiel is never a right sided cb he would get caught out of position waaaay to much.

  10. 95th min free kick and u decide to pass it around.. what bullshit tactics is this? Messi and dimaria occupying same space? Lautaro was awefull. Y only when arg concede they start to play srs? Lo celso was d best player.. I mean var played their part but come on scaloni and company… dissatisfied..

  11. Otamendi is disgusting.

    Made our game slow and Scaloni is messing up again. Should have subbed Papu in for Nico gonzalez. I don’t know why he took off ocampos , at least he was much better than Di maria.

    And a 20 pass goal called off by VAR. Wow…………..

  13. I miss Julio Don. If he was alive ref would not be robbed us like this. This keep happening with us. I have seen alot of worse gone unnoticed with Varsil

  14. We are side passing and back passing too much. Should have played Papu to provide the extra sharpness in attack. :O

  22. Nowhere I’ve seen a foul called for 20 passes behind the goal…of it is a foul it is a foul..if ref plays on..play is on… foul doesn’t come into VAR picture…what horseshit skullfucked ref would give this call?

  23. Plzzzzz anybody provide me a fully working link. Most of the sites r showing for 5 minutes then suddenly porn sites are popping up
    -_-

  32. These days we simply need fast defenders, this why we always lose to Germany, Brazil, and even France , Colobmbia All they needs to do is sprint fast with one player and we dont have any defenders fast enough that could stop that.

  33. it’s clear penalty because the referee is from brasil.
    New rule only for argentina player “If someone running with the ball clear the path for him, otherwise penalty. if the runner can’t dribble then you(argentina player) must move away, otherwise penalty”.
    For team against argentina “you are allowed to kill with your knee , no card. go have fun…”, conmebol.

  34. Few minutes before the goal, when I’m on the edge of the seat, my wifi shuts down… Almost as convenient as appointing only Brazilian referees for an Argentina game.

    Tomorrow I will start a movement on here to SPAM Roy about how necessary an ignore button is to this forum.

    Seriously. Look at this thread. It’s matchday for Argentina NT, which we can seldom enjoy, and the whole forum SWARMS with non-fans bashing all of our players and the whole team, instead of fans showing support for the team. IMPOSSIBLE that Roy actually wants that for his forum. He needs to understand and ACT.

    THIS IS A FAN FORUM FOR ARGENTINA NATIONAL TEAM.
    But when Argentina plays, this “fan forum” turns into a circus filled with hatred towards the whole team??????????????????????????????????????????????????? WTF

  35. Check out the analysis from goal.com in the first half.

    “The two teams enter the interval tied at 1-1, thanks to two goals from set-pieces. Almiron’s upending in the penalty area gave Romero a chance to give his nation the lead from the penalty spot – which he did with aplomb, though the lead was held for just 20 minutes. Despite Argentina’s poor play and inability to create from midfield, they found a way back into the match just four minutes from time, when Lo Celso’s corner found the head of Gonzalez. The draw seems a fair result at this stage of the proceedings, though Argentina’s bench could easily swing the match…”

    In short :

    >> More talented players on the bench
    >> Midfield is underperforming (lo celso offered some solace)

  36. LMQ, Montiel, Armani looked average player. They should not start ever. These South America players are trash with them Argentina going to win nothing. Poor show from these players although not surprised. Ocampus and De Paul are poor too. Best talent is in the bench does not understand this shitty coach. .

  37. What is this formation? Too much experiment in this kind of match will make players feel guilty at the end of the match.
    Defense is very weak thats why mf,fwd can’t even play their normal football. This defense making mf and fwd players playing difficult.
    How can you think to play with 3 defenders when non of them is solid and reliable. You have ball playing defenders that does not mean you can play with 3-4-3 formation.
    What is the outcome of this formation? Ultimately messi have to come down in deep midfield to build the game. We have solid players in every position except CB but still we are playing with 3-4-3. Coach have to admit this is bullshit strategy. Bullshit defense lineup

    Scaloni have to change his defense strategy otherwise we will be humiliated in big games.

  40. I always wanted somebody else other than messi to take corners for us , i think his delovery from corner is not that good so was very glad lo celso did it,let him do this both sodes of corner if not him then de paul has to do it and let messi insode the box so defenders will be more focused on him and lautaro and occampose can ease into the deliverys

  41. Lamela is better than De Paul, de Paul does not know how to pass the ball. Ocampus is waste too.J.Correa should be in the starting role. Argentina’s best players are in the bench and Scaloni using SA players as starters. Scaloni has no clue about his players.Lautaro Martinez is overrated player Alario should be in

  42. Overall dissapointed with the first half, the way we played is poor. Hope things change in second half. This way we cant beat european teams who play fast and attacking football. Scaloni needs a good tactics. C’mon

  43. Quick first half review for me:

    Started really bad. No possession. No intensity. There was a lot of gap on the right side. All Paraguay was doing was to thread the ball between Montiel and LMQ. De Paul was not covering. They just ran behind in the space.

    Intensity came in last 15 mins. Looked like we cared. I have to say Palacios injury is a blessing in disguise. Lo Celso started playing vertical. Everyone else plays sideways or back. Few movements helped vertical play.

    Players: Montiel, LMQ, Armani are ordinary players. They will be ordinary. Paredes was good. Lo Celso was good. Nico scored a great goal. I don’t remember when we last scored a goal like this. Get Dimaria for Ocampos.

    Now lets hope we don’t concede anymore and somehow sneak in another.

    • Agree. We seem to be growing into match . Even Bolivia game was similar. Looks like first 20mins team is trying to settle in & this will be costly against big teams. But anticipate our bench strength to finish this match . Maybe Lautaro is not at his best & Alario coming in . DiMaria for Ocampos looks a good move. still worrried how defense will respond to a counter

  45. The second Lo Celso got up to take that corner, I practically celebrated. I had a great feeling when he took it. And then it turned into a goal. Gonzalez might not have been a great player the whole game but remember, he’s playing as a wingback. When he got into a more natural goalscoring position for the corner he scored. We played well at the very beginning, badly before and after the goal, and MUCH better after our goal. I’m still very pissed at the refereeing and worried for Palacios. I wonder what kind of injury he could have on his side.

  46. The play is congested in the middle. Alario should have been there to capitalize the crosses.

    DePaul is playing good despite some people expressing their dismay. Should never play with three man in the defense. Every time Paraguay attacks, I feel a heart attack is coming. They are getting too much space.

  56. De Paul, parades, Montial, Armani, otamandi brings nothing to table. If they are the starting players for a national team, you got no shot of winning any big tournaments.

  57. This team has no rhythm… They’re playing like 11 stupid coconuts…

    They don’t know when to go fast and when to slow down. No speed, no control, no anything.

    They don’t deserve to be in the WC.

    Argentina is now literally a mediocre south america team.

      • Leandro – can u avoid calling country names? What has india to do with this? Who knows where Karl & his foolish comments are from. Don’t piss off genuine fans.

        • No I’m not gonna stop if ur from India and r here to actually support then stay . If ur here to troll like this guy is then fuck off this goes for every nation not just India. I don’t care if ur Canadian, from Ghana or England.

          • U seem the biggest troll here. Leandro- u shld just fuck off your big shitty mouth. Who the hell are you to police here & call countries ? No one cares a fuck on what u think. This is a global fan site for argentina & stop showing ur pathetic country biases .

      • The reality is that lautaro is not perfect for our beloved team
        Armani mother fucker….
        I have never seen he always goes opposite side in pelanty….
        De Maria must ocampos avarage
        Even icardi better then lautaro if dybala/ kun not there
        If we wanna 3 back line then Medina, Romero(LMQ), foyth
        I personally like a lot 3-4-2-1

        EMI Martinez.
        Medina. …..otamendi………Lucas Martinez
        De Paul…. Palacios( parades).. Lo celso…. Nico Gonzalez
        Messi
        De Maria( papu)…………………………. Alario

    • Your an absolute moron he is the only good cb Argentina has. The only one with any composure and pace that penalty was bullshit almiron ran into him and even the commentator said so. Actually watch the players before opening ur stupid ass mouth

  73. —————Lautaro
    ——Ocampos——Messi——
    —González–Palacios–Paredes–De Paul—
    ——Otamendi–Quarta–Montiel——
    —————Armani

    Nobody could have guessed this. González and De Paul as wing-backs. Very interesting choices.

    Let’s win this. VAMOS!!!

  74. Every coaches have their own plan. I think Lisandro Martinez is not in the Scaloni’s plan. Hope Lisandro Proved Himself as a starter from ajax with a good form. Vamos Argentina

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